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Archive | September 11, 2013

Abby Martin talks to Deepa Kumar, Rutgers University professor and author of ‘Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire’ about the historical context of Islamophobia and how it is used as a tool to perpetuate the War on Terror.

Mahatma Gandhi, the man who ultimately led India to gain independence from the United Kingdom, made a wise and knowing statement: “A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”

Gandhi’s words were intended to be interpreted in a wholly positive fashion. That is to say, when people put their minds to tasks in hand, and their belief is solid, strong and unswerving, they can achieve just about anything and everything they desire.

There is, however, another body of determined spirits that have an unquenchable faith in their mission and who can, and most assuredly have, altered the course of history. They have done so in two most unfortunate ways: by hiding history and, sometimes, even erasing it from the face of the Earth. And who might they be?

They are nothing less than a small but very influential body of characters secreted within the highest echelons of worldwide governments.… Read the rest

The Dutch daily newspaper Trouwreported this week that for years, the Pieter Zandt Protestant reformatory school has allowed students a say in creating a “diary” that includes a calendar, tips, jokes and Bible scripture. But the strict school does not allow any items that are considered to be debauchery — like pop music, movie stars, fashion and cartoons.

But this year’s project went awry when parents began to complain that one of the students on the cover of the diary was wearing a T-shirt with a peace symbol, which they considered to be linked to the “Antichrist.”

School board chairman Johan Van Puten looked into the history of the peace sign and found that some conservatives and fundamentalist Christians in the 1970s had claimed that it was an anti-Christian symbol.

A 20-year-old Russian man has emerged from a Siberian forest after spending 16 years living there. The man says he and his hermit parents moved there when he was 4. His folks finally left in May, and locals say they then decided to head to an island off Russia’s Pacific coast—and they didn’t invite their son, report AFP and RT News. “He has no education, no social skills, and no ideas about the world beyond the forest,” says a local prosecutor, per RIA Novosti. But “he looked normal and healthy; he only spoke slowly, since he doesn’t communicate as often as most people.”

I’m curious as to our readers’ opinions of Charlie Veitch, profiled by the Las Vegas Guardian Express as a former 9/11 Truther who changed his mind:

Once one of Britain’s principal conspiracy theorists as well as friend to David Icke and Alex Jones, Charlie Veitch, was known as a 9/11 “truther.” As soon as he realized that he had been duped, he stopped. But that was when his problems really began.

According to an interview Veitch gave to the Telegraph, Veitch, who had been Right-wing, joined the Territorial Army (TA). After a drunken night out with his best friend, his friend had turned to Veitch and told him that they had been lying to him. He told Veitch that 9/11 was not what he thought it was and that he was being given “special knowledge.” Veitch’s friend went on to show him a video entitled Terrorism: A History of Government Sponsored Terror, a video that was produced by US radio talk presenter, Alex Jones.

What do you do next when you’ve successfully screwed up the Earth? Screw up Space too! Agricultural science is approaching its next frontier reports Modern Farmer:

Last year, an astronaut named Don Pettit began an unusual writing project on NASA’s website. Called “Diary of a Space Zucchini,” the blog took the perspective of an actual zucchini plant on the International Space Station (ISS). Entries were insightful and strange, poignant and poetic.

“I sprouted, thrust into this world without anyone consulting me,” wrote Pettit in the now-defunct blog. “I am utilitarian, hearty vegetative matter that can thrive under harsh conditions. I am zucchini — and I am in space.”

An unorthodox use of our tax dollars, but before you snicker, consider this: That little plant could be the key to our future. If — as some doomsday scientists predict — we will eventually exhaust the Earth’s livability, space farming will prove vital to the survival of our species.

Cannibalism as a means to expand the doors of perception, with sake. Via ABC News:

A Florida man who killed a vagrant with an ax and ate his brain and eyes has been committed to a maximum-security psychiatric hospital in Connecticut after being found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Tyree Lincoln Smith, 36, was ordered committed Monday by a three-judge panel in Bridgeport Superior Court. Judges John Kavanewsky, John Blawie and Maria Kahn were urged by a prosecutor and social worker to protect society from Smith.

His cousin, Nicole Rabb, testified that she saw Smith in December 2011 carrying a bloody ax and chopsticks. She said Smith told her he killed a man with the ax, ate his brain and eyeballs and drank sake in a local cemetery.

A psychiatrist testified that Smith heard voices that told him to eat Gonzalez’s brain to better understand human behavior and eat his eyes to gain vision into the “spiritual realm.”

Abby Martin speaks about the blatant hypocrisy regarding Obama’s “red line” of chemical attacks as the motivating factor to intervene militarily in Syria, citing the top four chemical weapons attacks that the US military does not want you to know about.